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The defrocked deacon of an Albany church is being tried on allegations that he sexually abused a 6-year-old girl in 2003.

Angel Garcia, 61, a former deacon at the Church of the Holy Family on Central Avenue, was in Albany County Court on Tuesday as his alleged victim, now 17, told jurors he molested her in his apartment — then told her not to tell anyone.

Garcia, who was also the chaplain at Greene Correctional Facility in Coxsackie, was defrocked in 2010 for an unrelated allegation that he sexually abused a minor in the early 1990s before his ordination as a deacon. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany found that there were reasonable grounds to believe the allegation.

On Tuesday, the girl testified that the 2003 incident took place after her mother asked her to deliver vegetables to Garcia, a friend of the family. She said before she left Garcia's apartment, the deacon approached her from behind, placed his hand on her shoulder and touched her genitals.

"I tried to just move away and just make him stop," the girl testified, her voice shaking as she twirled a bit of yarn.

She said she wanted to go home, but Garcia took her arm and escorted her into his bedroom. There, she testified, he sat her down on his bed and the abuse continued.

"He just was saying that everything was going to be OK, that nothing wrong was going to happen," the girl testified upon questioning by Assistant District Attorney Chantelle Cleary.

"How did you feel?" the prosecutor asked the girl.

"I felt uncomfortable," she answered. "I didn't feel like it was right."

Garcia told her to keep the incident a secret, she testified.

A decade later, she said, she was at a church camp getaway with at least 50 parishioners when Garcia approached her and grabbed her arm.

"He told me that he was sorry for what he did to me and that (he) hopes one day I could forgive him," she testified.

She said it brought everything back. She said she later confided in her aunt who, in turn, told her parents. They went to an attorney who sent them to Albany police, which led to Garcia's arrest.

Garcia faces two counts of felony sex abuse, each of which carries up to 7 years in prison.

Deacons cannot celebrate Mass, but do give out the Eucharist and can perform weddings. Garcia was involved in the diocese's Hispanic Apostolate, which serves parishioners of Hispanic background. Garcia's former congregation included many families of Mexican, Puerto Rican and Dominican descent.

The girl said she worried that telling police would get her parents deported because they are in the country illegally, but that her parents were not concerned about that possibility.

Garcia's attorney, Jay Hernandez, told jurors in opening statements that the girl's allegation was made so her parents could use the allegation to obtain a visa and stay in the country.

Hernandez asked Albany County Judge Stephen Herrick to dismiss the case, saying the timeline in the indictment is overly broad and that the girl has given conflicting statements as to when the abuse took place.

During cross-examination, the girl admitted that she told a grand jury the abuse took place in 2004, not 2003. She said she was mistaken.